


no fairy tale kingdom

by clarakent (niewanyin)



Series: DickTim Week 2019 [6]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alpha Dick Grayson, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Phoenix, Body Horror, Fantasy, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Omega Tim Drake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:54:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22162141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niewanyin/pseuds/clarakent
Summary: Tim would like to sue God for emotional distressAKA Tim is a mermaid, Dick is a Phoenix, can I make it anymore obvious?
Relationships: Tim Drake/Dick Grayson
Series: DickTim Week 2019 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1572028
Comments: 3
Kudos: 119
Collections: Dick Tim Week 2019





	no fairy tale kingdom

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy, written for Day 6: Fantasy.

Tim would like to sue God for emotional distress. He has a disgusting gag shoved into his mouth, ropes tied around his wrists and ankles, and a knife against his throat, and the worst thing about this is that he's been kidnapped as Tim _Wayne_ , so he can't do shit as the kidnapper of the month monologues about how if Nightwing doesn't step back, Tim's gonna get it.

This asshole has _clearly_ watched too many gangster movies.

Dick, the other asshole in this situation, is watching the both of them with the slightest smirk on his face. The kidnapper can't tell because he doesn't know Dick like Tim does, but Tim can tell. He thinks it's funny when Tim gets kidnapped and he has to act like he can't knock them all out in five minutes flat.

He eyes the man that currently has him in his grasp.

Make it two.

The only issue is that this man has at least a foot of height on him, and there's no way that the adopted omega son of Bruce Wayne wouldn't be utterly terrified of him, so Tim has to force himself to cry and shake until Dick sees the best opportunity to save him. He just really wants him to hurry up, Tim is only wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans and it's at least 40 and they're standing near water. He's cold as fuck and miserable, and he just wants a jacket.

Dick better let Tim cuddle up with him, because the alpha's a furnace and Tim doesn't think there's any jackets or blankets in that uniform.

Dick is trying to talk the kidnapper down, but something happens, he says the wrong thing. Tim only comes out of his mind's aimless wandering when the kidnapper pulls him close, and then throws him into the fucking _salt_ water.

Pure fear grabs Tim's heart because he has spent a long time in his entire vigilante career to make sure that he would never, ever have to be forced into salt water. Salt water is dangerous, salt water isn't safe, salt water is where he proves himself his mother's son.

A mermaid’s son.

A scream is out of his mouth before he can even think about it, only swallowed up by the gag. When he hits the water hard and he starts sinking, his heart flies into his throat.

He struggles against the bonds, but it's useless. He can already feel the salt hitting his skin, and he whimpers, feeling the change happening in his body.

He's only had to go through this once before in his life, his mother forcing his body underneath the water and making it impossible for him to get out of the water. His legs are fusing together, and he screams because this is the worst pain in the world. His bones are breaking, his skin is tearing, binding together. The water is filling with blood because of his transformation, his bones locking into place, his muscles sewing themselves together, and scales are pushing their ways out of what skin remains. He can't force the screams out of his throat, he can’t even attempt to get out of his bonds. He's just in complete and pure pain right now.

He barely even registers the hands touching him, the arms cradling him, until he's pulled out of the water, Dick's worried face above him. Tim is aware of the warm wetness on his face that didn't come from the ocean, his shivering because he's so cold and it's the middle of the night and he's a pathetic excuse of a mermaid.

And Dick has to know that there's a tail on him, that Tim isn't fully human. But he doesn't say anything or do anything other than move Tim's head into the crook of his neck. "Dick," he whimpers. "It hurts so much."

"I got you, Tim," he whispers. "You're going to be okay."

Tim's still shaking, because that can't be true. He doesn't know how he'll be okay after this. The last time this happened, he was ten years old and he ended up passing out from the fun, his father waking him up by throwing fresh water on top of him, and then staring at him with disgust and disappointment. Tim's legs had returned back to their natural state, and ever since then, he had refused to go around natural salt water. He couldn't deal with the pain, the misery that getting his tail reverberating in his mind for years afterwards. He still woke up screaming with phantom pains in his body, convinced that his body was destroying itself. He couldn't handle it the one time he was forced to go near a beach during a case, blacking out from sheer panic.

Tim doesn't remember anything before waking up next to Bruce, threading his fingers through Tim's hair, and a promise that whatever the issue was, he would never make Tim get into the ocean.

Dick is treading the water right now. "You can't swim right now, can you?"

His entire lower body is throbbing with pain, and the thought of even twitching his tail makes him want to cry. He shakes his head, and all Dick does is nod. He starts swimming towards the land, and Tim closes his eyes, bright light flickering in his eyes from the pain. Dick is trying to be his gentle as he can, but it's still not working. Every touch is fire.

Tim doesn't how many gasps of pain he had to stifle, but it still ended up with Dick taking a deep breath and muttering, "Screw it. Baby bird, you're not the only one who's been keeping a secret."

Tim blinks open his eyes at that statement, and pulls back. He doesn't understand what's going on, not until Dick takes a deep breath and _wings_ erupt from Dick's back. He makes a small hiss of pain, but otherwise no sound escapes his lips as scarlet wings, shining with gold, branch out. With one flap, then another, Dick is literally flying with Tim in his arms, taking him out of the ocean and flying them towards land. Tim can't suppress the gasp from his lips, because it's glorious. Dick is gorgeous. Grappling is nothing like actually flying in Dick's arm, there's nothing that's ever made him feel so weightless and part of the air. Even as the pain of his own transformation ricochets through his body, he can't help but behold the majesty of Dick's.

" _Dick_ ," he whispers, wanting to reach out a delicately touch a feather, but too afraid to do anything that could remotely disturb him.

Dick laughs, low in his throat and it rumbles through his chest. "I think we both have some explaining to do."

Tim nods, still incredulous about Dick even though he has a heavy tail in his lower half that indicates that magical creatures intermingling with humans and creating offspring. He just wasn't aware that any others that weren't mermaid hybrids were possible.

It doesn't take Dick very long to fly to the beach, touching down gently on the ground. "Hold on," he whispers, kissing the top of Tim's head. "I'm going to warm you up."

Please. Tim needs to be warm, he needs it so badly. He's so cold and miserable right now, and he just wants to be warm. And he doesn't want to wet, he wants to dry and human and capable of actually fucking walking.

Dick takes a deep breath, and another gasp escapes Tim as Dick's eyes flash gold and then heat ripples through him, the warmth of Dick's embrace wrapping him tightly and Tim's eyes flutter close as the pain leaves his bones, only to be replaced by the rich warmth of Dick's fire. The wings disappear back into his skin, and Tim's own legs return, the scales falling off, the muscles untwisting themselves and the bones coming back and the skin regrowing. He's crying again, because reverting back is almost as painful as changing into his form in the first place. At least when he was ten years old, he had the good fortune to be unconscious for it, so he didn't have to go through it again in such a short amount of time.

Actually, that's a good idea.

Darkness crowds his vision and he allows himself to slide into a state that won't bring him pain.

*

He wakes up in a soft bed, and his lower half radiating in pain. He can feel a heat slowly crawling through his body, and groans. He had been forced to endure his first heat at ten after his first transformation, a week that had been utter pain and misery. He supposes it makes sense that a second transformation was also bringing on an off-cycle heat, even as he whimpers and curls an arm around his stomach.

His body hates him.

With a sigh, he rolls over and blinks at the alarm clock. Nine in the morning, but he doesn't even know what time he was kidnapped last night, or what time did everything go to hell. He's still exhausted and he's still in pain, and while he desperately wants to go back to sleep, he feels like he should get up.

Except that he also thinks that his legs are literally incapable of supporting himself right now.

He hears a crash, and blinks as he turns, only to find Dick blinking awake on the floor, a chair tipped over.

As he looks around the room, he finally realizes that he's in Dick's bedroom, under a pile of blankets in a very comfortable bed.

"What's going on?" he mumbles. "What happened?"

"You passed out from the pain," Dick says, and Tim winces as he hears the exhaustion in his voice. "Flew you here and got you settled."

"Flew," Tim whispers, red wings filling his mind. "You have _wings_."

Dick nods. "Part Phoenix," he states. "My mother's mother. Your lineage?"

"My mother's mother's mother's father," Tim winces. "That's all I know. Well, I know he was from somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, I think near Greece?"

"That's it?"

Tim shrugs. "It wasn't really talked about in my family. She was a mermaid, and she was proud of that, but she didn't grow up rich and she hated that. She hated that her family cared more about connecting with the ocean than with money and power. So I never . . . I never learned." He whispers the last part in shame. Why doesn't he know more about his family history? His mother hated her family, which makes Tim wonder if they were actually good people, but he has so little to go on. He doesn't even know his mother's parents names, that's how much she hid the truth from him.

Dick makes a small noise of sympathy. "Yeah, I don't know a lot about my dad's side, he never got on much his parents. And my mom was half-Scottish, half-Greek, and she had a really interesting family. The Greek side being the Phoenix side, but the Scottish side was wild too." He leans in close. "Think there might have been some distant fae mixed in there. Either that, or they _really_ liked to dance and drink and tell the truth in increasingly passive-aggressive ways that made them try to kill each other." He smiles fondly. "I should give them a call."

Tim blinks as he tries to take it in. His head is hurting now, and he doubts that it was Dick's explanation. It's just an unfortunate side effect of a transformation and heat mixing together, and he wants his secret stuffed animal to hold, the one that he can cry into and then maybe feel better. Her name is Sansa and she's a wolf. Cassie got it for him when he had accidentally gone into stress-induced heat in front of her, tucking her into his side when every touch by a person felt like fire and he had _needed_ comfort. She had laid down next to him, and between the wolf and the alpha’s scent, he had managed to fall asleep somewhat peacefully.

He loves Sansa and he _really_ wants to feel okay again, and he wants to wake up and have fast-forward through this pain and grief. His eyes fill with tears, and he tries to blink them back because he doesn't want to break down in front of Dick, but he knows that plan is going to fail massively because Dick is already looking at him with sympathy and it just makes the tears want to fall more.

"You're in heat," Dick mutters, getting up and beginning to make a nest for Tim. "We don't have to talk about this until later, don't worry, okay?"

But Tim wants to talk about it now. He grabs Dick's wrist, and Dick looks at him in shock. "Bruce thinks I was almost swept away when I was little," he manages to get out. "He hasn't asked for further explanation, but he's made sure I've never needed to go to the beach." He licks his lips. "No one else knows about this. Please don't say anything."

Dick nods. "I won't breathe a _word_ ," he promises. "Your secret is safe with me."

Tim believes that. "Your's is safe with me."

He doesn't ask Dick about why he didn't tell anyone, because he knows it's going to be the same as his own. At some point in your life, you realize that this is too strange for regular people to handle. And then from there, you don't breathe a word about any of it because you don't want to risk about the wrong people finding out and end up as a lab experiment. And then from there, when you realize that you could have trusted _these_ people, you don't say anything because you don't want to admit that you broke that trust. And then things just devolve further and further until you're left with the feeling like all you've done is hurt the people you care about without telling them a thing.

He knows that's why Dick never said anything. He squeezes his wrist in a strange solidarity, and then drops it, even though Dick is warm as he always is. 

And now Tim knows why.

"Where do we go from here?" he asks, not sure about the future, which seems both incredibly solid and full of pitfalls. "What do you want to do?"

Dick blinks at that. "Does this have to change anything? All we have to do now is just make sure that you _never_ end up near the ocean ever again, and you know that if you're ever cold, you can come get me."

God, that sounds like pure heaven, but Tim knows that he would never trouble Dick like that. He just shuffles further underneath the blankets as Dick builds him a nest, subtly touching his forehead to make sure that his fever isn't brighter than a heat would normally be.

After the time Tim had been struck by a cold and a heat at the same time while also having broken ribs, it's his family's greatest fear that he's going to be sick or injured in a heat, or God forbid, both again. He leans into the touch, forcing himself to ignore the slick on his thighs as his heat starts to roll over him more and more. Dick smiles at him lightly.

"You're going to be okay," he whispers, and Tim doesn't honestly know if that's true. Dick just pins down and kisses his forehead. "I will make _sure_ you're okay, alright?"

Tim sighs at the kiss. "Dick?" he asks, feeling sleep pull him down into its depths. "Thank you for being here for me."

"Of course," Dick whispers, before sleep pulls him down further.

Tim goes to sleep with the image of red-winged angels saving him from whirlpools, bringing him close to the warm embrace of the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm salazarastark on tumblr as well, so follow me [here](https://salazarastark.tumblr.com/)! I'm not as active as I'd like to be, but I'm always up for talking about my fics or anything else!


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